Hawaii day five: Today I allowed Shira to pick wahtever she wanted to do (payback for her agreeing to go diving with me) so we went shopping. Then the rest of the day we chilled by the pool

Sand sculpture in the lobby of our hotel

Walking out into the Ala Monoa Mall, It has an open roof

What a view

Koi pond in middle of the mall

Koi

Another Koi pond

More of the open mall

Hawaii day 4: we went to a flea market this morning and bought the kids a bunch of cheap stuff, then we went and met up with a diving guide, took a catamaran out to the middle of the ocean and went scuba diving. Shira went on the first dive, but was exahusted and sat out the second dive. On the first dive we ended up about 2 feet from these huge gigantic sea turtles, these were 3 1/2 to 4 feet long, swam through schools of fish, and checked out eels. On the second dive was much of the same, except for the turtles. My dive guide found an octopus and some how pulled it out from this tiny crevise and we were able to stay an handle it for about five minutes. Very very cool the octopus was about 2 feet long. Could not take to many pictures (no waterproof camera). All in all an amazing day and and an experience that we will hopefully do agian. Then tonight Shira and I went to walk around a mall and ended up in a maze store that apperently were duty free, basically that means out of the five hundred people there, we were the only non-orential people. Hopefully we will not experince that agian.

Finally squeezed into the wet suit

Getting the rest of my gear on

On the way to the second dive, the first dive our dive guide made me go down a ladder into the ocean, on the second dive though she let me walk off the side of the boat, that was a lot of fun.

Hawaii day 3: Today we went to Diamond Had crater to hike. The crater has an elevation hike of about 600 feet, 300 hundred steps, and a few areas that you need to crouch to get through. It was an exhausting hike but once we got to the top the view of diamond head bay and waikiki beach was stuning, as well as the hills of honuloulu. From there we went on what was supposed to be an easy hike to a place called Monoa Falls. It is a Mile and a half hike, classafied as "easy" but it was anything but. Basically we pulled off the road and automatically we where in the rain forest where the show Lost was shot. we proceeded to hike up to the falls along a path that was for the most part, 2 feet wide, sandwiched between a wall of whatever trees or bamboo was on one side and a shear drop of on the other. the path was mostly made up of boulders and tree roots. trecherous but one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Then we drove to the east shore to a beach name Kialuha. the water was crystal crystal clear. We then went back to the hotel and hung out....sounds like the perfect day right.....it gets better. We where walking around tonight and went down a side street and low and behold there was a bar called the yardhouse. I have been to the one in Chicago, did not know there was one in waikiki. The reason that this really caps off the perfect day is because the yardhouse has a center bar shaped in an oval, and the interior of the oval has 128 beers on tap!!! I love the Yard House.

Inside the crster

the top of the cater

southern shore from on top the cater

looking down into the crater

Honuloulu from on top the crater

Waikiki From on top  the crater

Diamond Head from on top the crater

Crystal clear ocean at kialuha beach



Kialuha beach

 Ka

Lost prop, in the rain forest

More lost props

Manoa falls

Monoa falls

Bamboo forest on the way to the falls

Pathway through tree trunk

Banyan trees

Rain forest

Rain forest

Massive tree

Hawaii Day 2: Today we drove through the middle of the island, from waikiki to the east shore (windward side) then up towards the northern shore, to the Polynesian Cultural Center. They work with BYU Hawaii campus to give scholarship to people from the polynesian islands, in return they work at the cultural center putting on shows and teaching different rituals and the like from there home islands. The people from the fiji show where from fiji, the tonga show from tonga etc., Our GPS told us where 22 Miles from our hotel to the center....and it was all "highway," note to everyone Hawaii's idea of a highway outside of the main populated area is a one lane mostly 35 mile an hour street. It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive but the drive was worth it. Unbelievably stunning.

Crazy looking tree at the center, had a root base above the ground that covered about a 20 by 20 area

A small beach on the side of the road the southern east shore is in the background

Random Banana Tree

Driving down the "highway" there was a bull chained to a post about 5 feet from the street

More Banyan Trees outside our hotel

 First thing we saw coming through the tunnel from the west side of the island to the east side

Small island off of the east shore

Looking up at the hills where Lost was shot, check out the tree, great pic

Weird tropical plant

One of the pools by our hotel

Lounge chairs in another pool

The infinity pool looking out over the ocean, they have waitress service up to the side of the pool nothing like lounging and drinking at the same time

Shira gets........

Shira with Fiji performers

Small islands off of the northern east shore

Tnoganese performer playing the nose flute

Some more really weird looking tropical plants and fruits

View from the infinity pool looking at diamond head crater and diamond head bay

Our first day in Hawaii

View from our Hotel Room

Flying over Kona

Molakai

Maui

Ocean to the south of Hawaii

Blue waters on the edge of Oahu

Hills heading towards the N. Shore

Infinity Pool over Waikiki Beach